Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery in Clarksburg, has added another synagogue to its roster of members.
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah, located in the Kemp Mill area of Silver Spring, became the 30th partner congregation of Garden of Remembrance, Executive Director Glenn Easton said last week.
Rabbi Dovid Rosenbaum said his congregation is partnering with the cemetery to give members more end-of-life options.
“Different members of our synagogue had expressed interest in the Garden of Remembrance cemetery, so we looked into it. We found it to be a very nice additional option,” Rosenbaum said.
Until now, congregants were buried at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Adelphi, according to Rosenbaum.
“We really just try to maximize the options for members and we’re doing that in this context as well. Everyone has different types of preferences, and we think there are certain members who will prefer this,” Rosenbaum said.
The 30 partner congregations of Garden of Remembrance include Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal congregations. The memorial park also serves those not affiliated with a synagogue, Easton said.
Young Israel Shomrai Emunah’s section is in the memorial park’s Orthodox section, “which conforms to the congregation’s religious practices,” read a statement from Garden of Remembrance. “The rabbinic, professional and lay leadership of YISE have been appointed to the memorial park’s advisory committee.
Garden of Remembrance was founded by Washington Hebrew Congregation in 1999. Easton estimated about 40% of its 152 acres are developed, with tens of thousands of burial spaces available.
“In our 22-plus years, we have probably sold about 15,000 spaces and had about 3,000 burials,” Easton said, adding that half of the burials each year are with partner congregations and half are for the unaffiliated community.
Easton said the cemetery estimates that they have growth capacity for the next 75 to 100 years. ■